The invention relates to a vehicle having at least in part an electric drive.
Traction batteries are used in hybrid vehicles or vehicles with pure electric drive and represent space-intensive structures which are arranged either in the front region or rear region of the vehicle and thus are exposed to high risk of deformation in the event of a crash.
To prevent destruction of the traction battery in the event of an accident, DE 10 2008 010 829 A1 discloses a generic vehicle having such a traction battery. The battery housing of the traction battery is divided into two interconnectable battery housing parts. Both battery housing parts are aligned with each other in such a way that the battery is protected overall against destruction in the event of a collision.
In order to ensure protection of occupants in the event of a crash, on one hand, and to ensure a substantial conversion of the impact energy into deformation work, on the other hand, modern motor vehicle are divided into deformation zones which act to absorb energy in the event of a crash, and into zones of high structural strength. Such a zone of high structural strength is, e.g., the body region located anteriorly of the pedals in travel direction. This body region is designed very rigid to prevent the pedals from becoming misaligned during collision that could pose a risk to the driver.
In the afore-mentioned prior art, the two housing parts of the battery housing are of such stable shape that, for reasons of protection against short-circuit and liquid tightness and gas tightness, the housing parts undergo almost no deformation. This requires, however, use of much material when designing the battery housing. In addition, the battery housing represents a simple block element that is not taken into account when designing a crumple zone to be provided for the vehicle.